Steve Hoffacker Is The OT/PT-Friendly CAPS Instructor
Steve Hoffacker CAPS has been teaching the Certified Aging In Place Specialist program since 2007 and believes that occupational and physical therapists (OTs and COTAs, PTs and PTAs) are uniquely positioned to address the gap between a client’s functional abilities and their built residential environment – making them essential to helping individuals remain safe and independent in their chosen homes.long-term.
As an AOTA associate member and an Approved Provider for AOTA continuing education, Steve brings a therapy-informed lens to CAPS education that aligns with your clinical training and real-world experience.
In your role as an OT or PT, you engage clients across a wide spectrum – from those managing progressive conditions or recovering from acute injury, to individuals beginning to notice subtle changes in mobility, cognition, or sensory function – and even those with no issues impacting them who are proactively planning for the future. You evaluate and address activities of daily living (ADLs) with a focus on safety, independence, and quality of life. You understand how physical, cognitive, and emotional factors intersect within the home environment – and how to adapt that environment accordingly.
This is where CAPS training, when taught through the right lens, becomes significantly more valuable.
The three CAPS courses include frequent mentions of OTs and PTs in the texts, but Steve’s unique instruction goes further by fully integrating the clinical reasoning and functional perspective that OTs and PTs bring to home modification. His courses are designed to reflect how you already think and practice – focusing less on construction alone and more on how environmental changes support function, participation, and long-term outcomes.
Just as there would not be the amount of interest in aging in place if not for the Baby Boomers, there could not be the focus on creating effective assessments and solutions without the OTs or PTs being involved. Contractors, designers, architects, building designers, interior designers, kitchen and bath designers, suppliers, assistive technology professionals, consultants, non-profits, and equipment and mobility specialists are all important in creating solutions and implementing them, but as far as understanding the aging process, dealing with it, and relating to the clients we want to serve, OTs and PTs are on the front lines.
Aging in place solutions for the public begins with an understanding of how they age and how their abilities change over time with an emphasis on functional relevance to their home environment. Rather than focus on construction elements of what to add or change in a home to make it generally safer, accessible, or more appealing, Steve’s classes actively appeal to your mindset. As people’s abilities are subject to change over time, you help evaluate and provide safety and usage modifications based on such functional qualities as their balance, mobility, vision, hearing, grip, posture, gait, strength, contrast sensitivity, depth perception, and reasoning.
If you are an OT or PT who wants to take your CAPS coursework with someone who understands your profession and the work you do to impact the home environments of your clients, find a class that Steve is teaching and enroll in it.